Breakdown of Minun on vietävä takki ompelijalle korjattavaksi, koska vetoketju on rikki.
olla
to be
minä
I
koska
because
viedä
to take (away, somewhere) / to take (time), require
korjata
to fix
rikki
broken
takki
the coat
ompelija
the dressmaker
vetoketju
the zipper
Questions & Answers about Minun on vietävä takki ompelijalle korjattavaksi, koska vetoketju on rikki.
How does the word korjattavaksi translate to "to be repaired"?
Korjattavaksi combines the passive present participle of korjata (to repair), which is korjattava (repairable / to be repaired), with the translative case ending -ksi. In Finnish, putting a passive present participle into the translative case expresses the purpose or intended outcome of an action, translating roughly to "into a state of being repaired" or simply "to be repaired".
Both vietävä and korjattavaksi are passive present participles. Why do they serve different roles in this sentence?
They are indeed the same participle form used in two different structures. Vietävä (from viedä) is in the nominative case and pairs with minun on to form a necessity structure meaning "I must take". Korjattavaksi, however, takes the translative case to show purpose. One tells you what must be done, and the other tells you why the object is being relocated.
Why is the object takki in its basic nominative form rather than taking an object ending like -n?
This is a strict rule for necessity sentences. When you use a necessity structure like minun on vietävä (I must take) or minun täytyy viedä, a total object must be in the nominative case rather than the genitive-accusative. Since you are taking one whole jacket, it stays as takki. If it were a partial or uncountable object, it would still take the partitive case.
Why doesn't the word rikki take any endings here?
Rikki (broken) is a special indeclinable word in Finnish. It never changes its ending to match the noun it describes or the role it plays in the sentence. Other common words that behave this way include aika (quite), ensi (next), and eri (different).
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